Recipient of Ciena STEM Teacher Grant Helps Children Learn Coding
Jewell was a recipient of the Ciena STEM Teacher Grant this year and used her funding to introduce her students to BeeBots.
Melanie Jewell’s introduction to coding project, “Beginning with BeeBots,” was a hit with the K-2 students of Terra Centre Elementary School in Burke, Virginia. Jewell was a recipient of the Ciena STEM Teacher Grant this year and used her funding to introduce her students to BeeBots—adorable bumblebee robots designed to help kids understand cause and effect, directional language and early programming. By pressing directional buttons on the BeeBots, children learn to code the path of the BeeBot. Beebots can help children with other learning challenges as well, such as matching an animal to its shadow, finding rhyming words, connecting habitats and linking the answers to math problems. Jewell’s students “worked collaboratively to create a path for the Beebot to start at a green summer leaf and travel along the summer leaves to get to a red fall leaf,” she states. The young programmers had so much fun and improved along the way as they figured out what worked and what needed to be changed. Jewell’s project shows that engaging with and providing exciting and fun technology to younger students is vital in stimulating interest in STEM learning and problem-solving.
To apply for a Ciena STEM Teacher Grant, visit https://www.afcea.org/site/ciena-teaching-grant.
